


Fairytale Duty

by Fair_Feather_Friend



Series: Fairytale (Mottlemoth)  Fanfiction [2]
Category: Fairytale (Mottlemoth), Original Work
Genre: Dysfunctional Family, F/M, Fae & Fairies, Possibly non-graphic dub-con, Royalty, Seelie Court, Unseelie Court
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-30
Updated: 2019-06-30
Packaged: 2020-05-31 10:15:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19423915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fair_Feather_Friend/pseuds/Fair_Feather_Friend
Summary: Fanfic of Mottlemoth's Fairytale.The Crown Princess of the Seelie Court is forced into a marriage she does not want with an Unseelie Lord. Everyone is unhappy forever.





	Fairytale Duty

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Mottlemoth](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mottlemoth/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Fairytale](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17706656) by [Mottlemoth](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mottlemoth/pseuds/Mottlemoth). 



> I love Mottlemoth's Fairytale. It is so very good.
> 
> Everything belongs to Mottlemoth. I lay no claim on anything.
> 
> This is a companion piece to [Fairytale Wrecks](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19398799). I'd originally intended to write a sympathetic portrayal of Elena to mirror the portrayal of Rex, and then I decided nope, that would be far too easy, and Fairytale does do a good job of showing her sympathetically.

Elena had always dreamed, like any other Princess, that some day her Prince would come. Over the years she'd imagined him to be many things. She wanted nothing more than to marry for love. 

She waited. As all those around her married, she held onto hope.

When her sisters one by one paired off and started having children she did not give up. So many of them had found exact matches and were living in blissful happiness. She would have the same. 

She had a soulmark. He would have the same. 

She was the perfect daughter. The perfect crown Princess. While all her sisters moved away and married, she remained. While they focused on their own lives, she gave and gave and gave. Her only piece of selfishness was in waiting for her soulmate.

She knew her mother was frustrated. She knew her parents did not understand. They had a happy marriage without being soulmates. But neither of them bore a mark. They did not know what it was like to know your soulmate was out there, waiting for you. How could she settle for just anyone, when her mark promised the perfect partner. Her husband would be the perfect lover, perfect companion, perfect father. She would love him with every single breath, and he would feel the same. 

As she grew older her standards and expectations for her soulmate grew less and less. She resolved that she would be happy whoever he was.

She was 36 when her mother issued the ultimatum. That if she did not marry, then she would be stripped of her title as Crown Princess, and the line of succession would be diverted around her. She'd sacrificed so much already for the crown. What would she be without it, cast aside as if she was worthless without a man by her side.

She was forced to make the most difficult decision of her life, and took one last look at the list of eligible bachelors, so much smaller than it had been in her teens and twenties and she picked a name.

Elena had only chosen the boy out of the list of names because he was so wholly unsuitable she'd expected her mother to say no. She should have known better. The Queen was so desperate to see her eldest daughter married that she'd pounced upon the tentative agreement, and made arrangements before Elena could even catch her breath. 

Elena had expected the Unseelie Court, aware of how desperate the Queen was to see Elena wed, would make unreasonable demands for the boy's hand in marriage. He was said to be extremely popular in their court, and most certainly had other suitors pursuing him. But whatever negotiations her parents had had with them resulted in an agreement that was satisfactory on all sides, and no jilted lovers of his had tried to pledge a prior claim.

The unseelie boy was beautiful, quiet, and oh so young for his twenty-three years. He'd been deposited on the doorstep, mere weeks before the wedding. Alone. 

While he appeared sweet, quiet, docile. Elena knew that it was all a lie. The Unseelie Court were scheming as they always did and she was not going to fall prey to their machinations.

She'd left it to the servants to welcome him and see him to his rooms. 

His clumsy attempts at seduction were a mockery of everything she had once wanted. As if he'd copied them word from word from a book on how to pick up women. It wasn't like he needed to even bother. She would be forced to marry him regardless. 

During their first public outing together, to formerly announce their engagement, he had utterly humiliated her. Her friends, her allies, her enemies, had all joined together in their mocking of him. And worse, he seemed to revel in that attention.

He'd dressed in what may have been in fashion some twenty years previously. While she'd known the Unseelie court were backwards, this seemed so carefully calculated to draw to attention, what her husband would have been wearing if she'd just chosen one all those years before.

When she'd brought her concerns to her mother, the Queen had just told her it was her duty to control her own fiance. Elena had expected to be a wife, not a babysitter, forced to supervise his wardrobe of all things.

"You will not dress like that again."

The boy had looked at her with those doe-eyes of his, feigned innocence certainly. "Why? Everyone complimented me."

"Surely you're not that naive. Your clothes are ridiculous. They were mocking you."

Elena watched the emotions play out across his face, but he just said. "I see."

"There is a tailor our family uses. You'll have fittings and some more appropriate clothing to wear." 

"A human?" he asked, tight-lipped.

"Of course a human. It's what everyone wears, these days. In the meantime try and wear something a little less last century. I don't need you humiliating me again. There are plenty of items you can purchase from their shops for more casual wear."

"You'll come with me?"

"Why would I do that? Surely even you are capable of purchasing some clothing for yourself. It's not like it's difficult." 

"And you'll be providing me with the money so that I can purchase these human things?"

Could he not even do that for himself? What sort of incompetent idiot had they sent her to wed. She looked him up and down, taking in the terrible condition of his attire. "I'll send one of the staff with you, to make sure your purchases are appropriate."

"A human?"

"Of course a human. That's how we do things around here. You've got to stop saying it like that."

He'd returned with a gift for her. It had been a nasty, ugly thing. Tat from a tourist shop. Certainly intended as revenge that she dared to suggest he acquire a bit of class and sophistication.

The jeans did fit his legs perfectly, showing off his ass in a way that his previous clothes had not. The t-shirt clung tightly, leaving nothing of his body to the imagination. Not that she was the slightest bit interested in such things. They could attempt to polish him as much as they could, but it still would not change his nature. 

\---

Elena's wedding day should have been the happiest day of her life. Instead it was the worst. Even until the last minute she'd held a faint hope that her soulmate would show up. With her vows that dream died. This was to be her existence now. Duty before love.

As terrible as the wedding day had been, the wedding night was even worse. In all her dreams it had never been like this. Her husband would have laughed with her, shared all her burdens and joys, it lifted her soul just to be around him. She'd saved herself for him, his kisses, his caresses, she'd dreamed of him all her life. 

The awkward, difficult, boy in front of her was everything she did not want. She knew the Unseelie Court could be monsters, in touch with their base natures, but he never even had the courtesy of trying to ravish her. There was no passion about him, no desire. 

"You've done this before?"

His eyes were wide, startled. Save her from virgins. But then he nodded just once, his cheeks flushed with embarrassment. 

"Get on with it then." 

He spoke meaningless words, he'd probably memorised, about her beauty. She'd heard such things so many times before, and they sounded false upon his lips. He'd pawed at her clumsily, tried to slobber on her face, and she sighed. 

She'd have to do all the work herself. It was a simple, mechanical process, one she'd read about. There was no pleasure for her, only duty. Everything about him disgusted her. By the end of it she never wanted to see him again. She'd thrown up afterwards, and sobbed herself to sleep. Alone.

If she were lucky they'd never have to repeat this. 

She wasn't that fortunate. There were months and each time he grew more loathsome, more obnoxious. He couldn't even be bothered to do his part. He did not need to make this as unpleasant for the both of them and yet he seemed to revel in her misery. 

She hated him and how young and immature he was. How he kept seeking her out. She hated everything about him. How he made her skin crawl. How she was forced to do this several times a month. Of how she'd sacrificed her happiness for this sham of a relationship. 

When she finally fell pregnant it was such a relief. She would never need to endure him again. But he continued to try and force his way into her life. He was always there, always demanding, questioning, arguing, causing trouble. She knew that the gentle creature he'd pretended to be when they'd first met had been a lie, and she was so glad that she never let her guard done a single moment, and let herself trust him.

Elena had the duties of the Crown Princess, and now a mother too. She did not need the burden of her husband and his pathetic demands too.

He kept trying to push his way into the boy's life, her precious son. Intent on making Leo weak, poisoning him against his position, corrupting him against the Seelie court. She knew that Rex was dangerous. Forever challenging the ways of the Seelie court, always causing trouble, doing the wrong thing, acting as if he was entitled to anything.

Forever flaunting his dark powers. They'd once caught Leo doing the same. He'd been so young, she'd been horrified to see him call the same shadows as Rex had. When Leo had started asking about his father., she knew that something must be done to keep the boy away from the influence of the Unseelie. 

Elena's mother agreed in the wisdom of sending Leo to live amongst the humans, boarding school so that he might be out of reach of those dark Unseelie skills. Leo would take the throne one day, he could not risk being one of them.

Rex had raged so much on discovering they'd placed the boy out of his reach. She'd hoped that without her son tying him to Cridhe he would finally be rid of him. She had no such luck. 

An affair. An altercation. Some clear evidence he was a spy, leaking sensitive information to the Unseelie. She could find none of it. The Queen was still punishing her for holding onto hope of love and waiting so long to marry. It wasn't as if the Queen liked Rex any more than she did. 

But he managed to skirt along just on the line of acceptable.

She hated him. He lived to make her life miserable. He'd stolen away all her joy. She couldn't even enjoy a relationship with her son because of him, and his abuses. 

She'd been forced to choose between duty and love, and she would not let her sacrifices be in vain.


End file.
